Dragon Age
Winner of the GLAAD Award for Outstanding Video Game, Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a richly crafted action RPG by BioWare and EA. Featuring dynamic real-time combat, deep customization, and an accessible interface centered around its signature Combat Wheel, it’s celebrated for its inclusivity, refined UX, and modern approach to classic RPG systems.
During the early development of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, I contributed to defining the game’s core UX direction, helping shape player flows, interface tone, and accessibility goals from preproduction through early production. My focus was on establishing a clear, intuitive foundation that balanced BioWare’s rich RPG depth with modern, player-friendly design principles.
dragon age: the veilguard
HUD, menus, Atomic
Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a modern action RPG that blends cinematic storytelling, tactical party combat, and refined player systems to deliver a deeply personal and inclusive experience built on BioWare’s signature world-building and character depth.
Pre-Prod
Rather than adapting to an existing architecture, I had the opportunity to help shape the foundation of the game’s systems from the ground up. Early work focused on the HUD and on the party selection screen using the same UI elements in both to reinforce recognizability and create an intuitive flow between selection and use. I also got to work on some core standards like the save and settings screens. While decisions are still being made, getting done with guaranteed work early allowed the team to iterate faster on new, experimental systems later in production, ensuring a strong and flexible UX framework for the game’s evolving needs.
The gift of art direction
Leadership approached Dragon Age: The Veilguard with a strong focus on substance and art direction. The team embraced a bold, stylized aesthetic, shifting away from hyper-realism toward a curated, pulpy visual tone that blended high-fantasy drama with graphic clarity. In that spirit, we treated many UI components as extensions of the art direction itself. While this introduced certain creative constraints, those guardrails ultimately sharpened our focus on functionality, consistency, and instant visual recognition.
Anthem
recognized by the Game Critics Awards for Best PC Game and Best Action Game at E3 2018. Anthem features cooperative online play, extensive player customization, and large-scale dynamic encounters. Praised for its exhilarating flight and combat feel, it also aimed to merge RPG depth with live-service design.
I joined Bioware shortly after Anthem's launch. Taking over as the UX team was jumping onto a new project.
Anthem
HUD, menus, Systems
Anthem was praised for its stunning visuals but criticized for shallow gameplay and progression. While a small team and myself maintained the live version to keep the game and IP active, a larger redesign effort, Anthem Next, was in development to address its core issues. However, in 2021 EA decided to cancel the overhaul, reallocating BioWare’s resources toward the next Dragon Age project instead.
Anthem Live
On Anthem Live, I served as the sole UI/UX designer and scripter following team reallocation, taking full ownership of end-to-end design responsibilities. I collaborated closely with engineers and designers to implement production-ready UI systems and interactions that supported ongoing live content. My work included fixing bugs, refining player-facing interfaces, and refactoring the notification system in preparation for seasonal updates like Season of Skulls and Icetide.
Anthem Next
For Anthem Next, I focused on reimagining the game’s core UI/UX through functional prototypes for key systems such as the Maps, Objectives, and Start screens used in the Vertical Slice. These prototypes helped define the foundation for the planned redesign, ensuring that new interfaces aligned with improved gameplay loops and player progression goals.
Unfortunately, not every project reaches release, and while the work on Anthem Next was strong and full of potential, BioWare ultimately shifted focus to the next Dragon Age title, with the team moving on to support its development.
